Now it was supposed to be a happening start to the Holi weekend, Saturday night, mid-semester breaks starting! Some would have decided to go to a club, some would have decided for a lazy night in pyjamas and laptop, some would have procrastinated and dozed off. But I wanted to do something different, so why I decided to watch a cliché (from the first look of the poster) Bollywood movie, Badrinath ki Dulhaniya.

I went in the movie hall without any expectations from the movie. I pictured it having lots of non-laughable weary jokes with fresh slang, simple crisis and in the end, a trademark song and a happy ending. One would argue here that it was nothing more than what is just said but trust me, the movie has a lot in it than the typical “humpty dumpty, dilwaale, majnu laila” stories.

Spoiler season: I would give a quick synopsis of the plot which was closely knit around the lives of Badrinath Bansal (Varun Dhawan) and Vaidehi Trivedi (Alia Bhatt). The movie talks about a lot of stereotypes including dowry, child discrimination, patriarchy and more than that it revolves around the pillars of trust, respect, and forgiveness.

One can say that it will make him/her remember at least one person whom they have loved or love in their lives. For the university peeps, the concluding night is going to be filled with late night chats with their loves, crushes, likers (one can hope so and this does imply to me Haha!).

Badrinath (Varun) is son of a well reputed feudal lord in Jhansi who has a peculiar weapon with him. Double barrel gun? Shotgun? Lawn mover? Muscle? Brain? No! He has a cliché weapon and that is? (WAIT FOR IT)

For the matter of fact, the heart of an Indian father is the weakest of all and that has been depicted in a hilarious manner by the Director, Shashank Khaitan. Whenever his orders and heavy voice are not given importance in family, Badrinath’s dad holds his chest and controls family with the threat of a heart attack (thanks dad for not being so! Pheww)

Mother who is a typical see-saw pendulum between the father and children is the one who absorbs all the tension and one could just hope that she does not erupt.

An elder brother who could not marry the love of his life because of his father’s timely or untimely heart ache which forced him to take care of him instead of that girl.

Last but the least, a confident, smart and diligent sister-in-law who was supposed to act as a feeble Indian lady in front of the family.

Phew..describing these characters brings in lot of similar characters resemblances from real life for me and surely will do the same for you!

Badrinath is now of a marriageable age and as the Indian tradition is, at least there is one place where irrespective of sex and just age, relatives start poking you, when are you getting married? (Reaching that age soon, fingers crossed dudes!)

He meets Vaidehi (Alia) and is struck by her bold and confident persona but as usual in an Indian stalking promotional movie, we see that Alia is least interested in him. (So subtle, no one knows that she would be in love with him later on! #Suspense)

Vaidehi, on the other hand is from an average middle-class family (Just like You and Me) and how can she not have an equally attractive sister? Because bollywood got to raise the bar of tragedy for a middle-class Indian family who has a set of parents with the only goal of their life being able to get their daughters married. To make it more tragic, Vaidehi’s dad is also a so-called heart patient and has the accuracy of a bulls-eye to use this weapon at the right time.

The movie after the initial half an hour drifts towards a more clichéd theme where the guy stalks the girl even after constant rejection in private and public both, but thanks to director, Shashank Khaitar and Varun’s evergreen comedic nature, these scenes are carried out with humour and fun (though we hate stalkers, bleh).

Then the movie shows different instances and incidents which happen in their day to day lives and the friendship blossoms like BJP is blossoming in the country right now! No limit and predictability of the upper limit!

This being a review should have told you about the story of second half but telling that would spoil the movie for those who have not watched the movie. (Hint- A life changing incident takes place in both their lives, Vaidehi being the stimuli (Search class 9th NCERT BOOK).

All in all, if we are to be the teacher and judge the students as they are living on our mercy, Varun would win the race from Alia as he molds his character smoothly as the climax speeds in. Although, I was not sure that he started as a “UP ka Bhaiya” and after going to Bombay his slang converted into a typical Mumbai tapori (Too quick to adapt, nice! #sarcastic) but he manages it well.

Alia also had a strong character and she stood up against a lot of stereotypes but the place where I disliked her most was when we see a group of boys molesting Varun Dhawan and after he is being rescued, Vaidehi finds the situation funny. So you are telling that men can’t be molested and you earned 60 crs? Woah, India!

Condition

Reaction

Torn tight fitting t-shirt, his chest is visible in an inappropriate manner

She starts giggling and so do the other cast members and few people in the audience also find it funny! Strange

Any random girl standing in a torn suit with her cleavage visible in an inappropriate manner

This would have become a social agenda, people would have shared the clip on social sites and praised the director for depicting the animosity.

There were quite a few scenes which were presented with light humor but if given a closer look made us realize how shallow we are and living in 21st century does not necessarily makes us modern. But the bigger question is that whether these soft messages reach the audience or no and they just go into movie halls, spend a new branded Modi 500 note, come out talking about how Varun stalked Alia, or how they drank in the night!

The chemistry between Badrinath (Varun) and his friend cum broker, Somdev (Sahil Ved) is worth watching and one would love it and glorify the definition of BRO CODE.

The movie talks about several stereotypes along with a new idea wherein the female character, Vaidehi helps Badrinath grow as an individual outside the Jhansi’s feudal life around which he had been. It feels good to see the male protagonist accepting these advices and working his way out of that patriarchal stereotypical society.

So, in the end, I would say, badrinath ki Dhulaniya is going to leave you with wet eyes in a few scenes because of emotional intensity and in few because of the intensity of poor jokes and witty lines. The movie also stinks with clichéd scenes and dialogues but in all it is a good One time Watch movie and best part is that you can watch the movie with your family without feeling that why on earth there are no fans in the movie hall at which you can stare and portray your mom dad that you are innocent.

Even though the first thing guys are going to do is search for the cute girl who becomes Alia’s friend in the movie and girls are going to search for Varun’s Abs.

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